Wow, The Guitar Show was certainly a rollercoaster of an event with the busiest crowd I’ve witnessed to-date. At times it was quite a struggle to make your way through the packed waves of attendees, which did though start to peter out just a little after 3 o’c. For me it was fast and furious from the start - and I found it a little awkward navigating around the hall - as the stand layout seemed to have all kinds of little nooks and crannies - which made some booths incredibly easy to overlook ...

Wow what a wild ride of a month - one of the busiest to date - bookmarked with two superb events. You really need to read my event round-ups - they’re so full of little details - and of course personalities - the bigger friendship network and sort of family that makes up this magnificent sector in many ways. For sure everyone is in hard competition with each other for the same customer money - but there’s genuine warmth of spirit - a friendliness and willingness to cooperate and get along. Both...

I’ve really taken to the Kempton Park Reacourse venue for this show - with its superb viewing platform of a Panorama restaurant at the top of the building - in fact there are a few places you can seek refreshments. The whole things had / has an easy family vibe to it - where several exhibitors brought part of their family with them for the day - some the whole shebang, while others had their Dad or Brother in tow - just a really nice easy breezy atmosphere - and so easy to get to for those of ...

My second Flattley pedal is the Guitarist Magazine ’Choice’ awarded and ’2022 Gear of the Year’ - Revolution Dynamic Overdrive. Essentially originally derived from a Tube Screamer style circuit, while only the first Silicon variety of its Clipping Modes / Voices can be described as being a Screamer type - and a very excellent take on that genre indeed - as Brett Kingman attests to below.

The second Opamp voicing is really full-throated and beefy with more thickness and low end - somewhat ...

Another busy month - doubly busy as I was working on the new website and commercial plans for the most part on top of the normal hectic schedule. Inevitably there are a few pedals that get moved into October - as I just ran out of time - still plenty of coverage. October is going to be incredibly hectic as I’m expecting a lot of incoming pedals - so a lot of review work to complete and a couple more sizeable projects.

I feel the website launch went mostly very well and was universally well ...

So what we have here is a 1968 Silicon Type II style Fuzz Face circuit - featuring premium quality metal can BC108 Transistors like the early Silicon generation of Arbiter Fuzz Faces.

The pedal of course has all those premium Flattley Platinum Series features too - the intricate 9-Step Metal Flake / Hydro-dipped finish, along with Laser-etched knobs, Halo LEDs, and branded footswitch topper. In its Día de Muertos Skulls livery / artwork edition it has the most wonderful 3D shimmer to it - ...

An introduction to and overview of the Flattley Boutique Effects Family Business run by Paul, Jan and Phoebe. How it all started, what were the original pedals created, which are the perennial bestsellers and how the business has evolved.

WARNING! This post is massive, and will probably crash your mobile device! Best accessed via Desktop or Laptop!

Last time I did this exercise I featured just 9 companies in my cover shot, and covered 57 overall - with just videos for the top 9.

While this time around I’ve doubled down - where there are 27 companies in the cover shot and 105 overall! And circa half of those are accompanied by a video - which is a lot! I first cover the 27 Leading Lights group, and then the 78 brands in ...

Like most I believe - I had a wonderful time at the recent Brighton Guitar Show and Pedal Expo - where I spent 97% of my time in the Pedal Room, with just brief excursions out to the Hamstead Soundworks and Timber Tones stands in the main Guitars Room.

I pretty much managed to get to the vast majority of stands I intended to - but there are always some casualties as time is a finite commodity! And I was there actually from just after eight until gone 17:30 - one of the very last to leave - ...